Slum‐free cities of the A sian century: Postcolonial government and the project of inclusive growth

Abstract

The A sian C entury can be understood as a historical conjuncture marked by new formations of economic hegemony and bold claims of A sian ascendancy. Situated at this historical moment, this essay examines a particular project of postcolonial government: inclusive growth. Taking up the example of I ndia's recent S lum‐free C ities policy, it shows how postcolonial government tackles the problem of urban poverty in order to make the A sian world‐class city. S lum‐free C ities marks a shift in city‐making projects and indeed in the project of modernization—from slum evictions and demolitions to the integration of the poor into market rule. This essay provides an analysis of such emerging configurations of state, economy and poverty. Yet, such projects of inclusive growth are marked by paradoxes and limits, notably the complexity of transforming slum lands into legible and monetized property markets. These dilemmas are not new, and in fact, the archives of postcolonial government indicate repeated recitations of slum modernization. This longer history also indicates the need to view the A sian C entury and its city‐making projects, not as rupture or renaissance but instead as a citationary structure which enables distinctive teleologies of development and projects of postcolonial power.

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